Swine flu mums fight for lives

Up to six new mothers infected with swine flu are on life support after giving birth prematurely because the virus was threatening their babies.

The women, all from the western suburbs of Sydney, are fighting for their lives and at least two of the babies are also in intensive care after suffering respiratory problems.

"This situation has become very, very grave," one midwife said.

Another two pregnant women were in intensive care at Westmead Hospital but were yet to give birth. Staff were trying to manage their conditions without inducing labour.

"Usually we don't have any pregnant women in ICU with influenza, so this is worrying," the hospital's professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Brian Trudinger, said.

Swine flu can pass to a foetus through infected membranes in the placenta or can cause a baby to overheat if the mother is feverish. Pregnancy reduces a woman's immunity and her capacity to breathe properly because of the compression on her lungs from the foetus.

Main arteries were also compressed by the baby when a pregnant woman was lying on her back, making it difficult to intubate and ventilate, the president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Ted Weaver, said.

A 32-year-old South Australian man with pre-existing major medical conditions and a 38-year-old Queensland woman described as being in the "vulnerable group" died yesterday after contracting swine flu.

The number of Australians diagnosed with swine flu has surged past 10,000, including 692 in WA. Across the nation 149 people are in hospital with swine flu, including 58 in intensive care.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the focus was increasingly on treating people most at risk and in hospital, with authorities worried by the growing number of younger people who otherwise appear healthy being diagnosed with swine flu.

"Mostly the people who are being hospitalised are those with other underlying health conditions," Ms Roxon said. "We do see that there are some people that are young and otherwise healthy who have rapidly deteriorating disease."

In WA, a 31-year-old man was in a critical but stable condition last night in Royal Perth Hospital, and a 33-year-old man was in a critical condition in Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

University of WA research, using computer modelling, predicts that one in four people could become sick with swine flu without a broad vaccination program or intervention with antiviral drugs.

The World Health Organisation said yesterday that a safe swine flu vaccine would not be available for at least two months, despite claims it would be ready in Britain next month.